Kayaker was experienced, had fatal attack, family says

Monday

Nov 26, 2012 at 11:00 AMNov 26, 2012 at 11:03 PM

By Paula Owen TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Union carpenter Zachary D. Constant brought joy into many people’s lives, including the nieces and nephews he mentored since he was a teenager, his colleagues he made proud with his dedication to hard work, and the friends and family members he always had a smile for.

Mr. Constant, 31, of 715 Westminster Hill Road, died Saturday night while kayaking on Paradise Pond in Princeton with a friend. Family members said he was dead before his kayak flipped. Lee Testagrossa, one of his best friends since childhood, pulled him to shore and frantically tired to resuscitate him, they said.

His family and friends are in shock over his death. During an interview this morning, his mother said doctors didn’t find any water in her son’s lungs and believe he may have had a heart attack before his kayak flipped. He was the youngest of the Constants’ three children and their only son.

“He was fishing and collapsed — he did not drown,” said his mother, Janice L. Constant, this morning. “We were told by the doctors he was dead before he hit the water. They are trying to determine what caused it.”

Paul Jarvey, a spokesman for Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.’s office, said it doesn’t appear the men were wearing life jackets. He said no foul play is suspected. Autopsy results are pending, he said.

The matter is being investigated by state and environmental police, as well as police and fire authorities in Princeton and Westminster.

Mrs. Constant said her son and Mr. Testagrossa were lifelong friends, who played youth hockey together and were roommates while attending Franklin Pierce College.

“(Mr. Testagrossa) ... is completely broken and frantic,” she said. “He did everything in his power to resuscitate Zach and tried frantically to get help. He said people wouldn’t stop and finally some people stopped and called 911. The police station was right up the street.”

She said he had to leave Mr. Constant on the shore and kayak to an area close to the road where he could flag someone down for help.

An officer from the Princeton Police Department who responded jumped into Mr. Testagrossa’s kayak and paddled across the pond to Mr. Constant, and tried to revive him until the ambulance arrived, she said.

“He was my baby,” his mother said. “He was a wonderful man and touched so many lives. He was a man with a heart of gold and a smile that lasted forever. His 9-year-old nephew said, ‘Jesus must have needed someone to paint the walls a little bluer in heaven.’ He is an angel that has left us too soon.”

Mr. Constant would kayak and fish with Mr. Testagrossa often at the pond, said Mr. Constant’s fiancée, Kelly L. Basilio. Besides teaching his six nieces and nephews how to play deck hockey and snowboard, he loved nature and camping, she said.

The couple planned to marry in February after waiting years for the “right time.” “We met right after college through friends,” the 31-year-old Lunenburg hair salon owner said. “This is very shocking and this time of year, it is even worse.”

Ms. Basilio said the couple’s home isn’t very far from Paradise Pond and Mr. Constant was an experienced kayaker. “I wasn’t ever worried anything would happen," she said. "The water wasn’t even deep enough. It was only up to Lee’s waist.”

According to the DA’s office, both men had to paddle against the wind for a period of time to get to an area protected from the wind. When Mr. Testagrossa looked back from his kayak, he saw that Mr. Constant had overturned, and he jumped into the chest-high water to pull him out.

Both men were taken to HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster, where Mr. Constant was pronounced dead around 4:45 p.m. Mr. Testagrossa was treated for hypothermia.Ms. Basilio said everyone who knew Mr. Constant loved him. She said he loved his nieces and nephews and would spend as much time with them as he could.

“He loved those children like they were his own,” she said. “We badly wanted children of our own, but we waited so long because we wanted to be married before we had children.”

His father, IBM engineer Denis O. Constant, said his son was like the “pied piper.” “Anyone who heard his tune, saw his smile, or talked to him, followed him the rest of their lives,” he said. “He exuded love and friendship.”

His son helped him prepare the yard at his home in Leominster the day before he died. “Friday he helped me bring in wood and clean up the yard and helped get ready for winter,” his father said, holding back sobs. “He said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Dad, to finish up,’ but he went fishing instead.”

His father, who has severe glaucoma, said his son was always thinking of others. His son donated his corneas to a donation bank, he said.

His sister, Aimee B. Murphy from Leominster, said Mr. Constant was full of life and was fun to be around. He was also grounded and stepped up to the plate to help raise her and her sister’s children when he was just a teenager.

“We had kids young and both of us lived at home while he was in high school,” Ms. Murphy said. “He took over as a teenager and coached hockey for our kids, attended the father-daughter dance with my daughter and gave them the father figure they wouldn’t have otherwise had. My sister keeps saying, ‘He has got to be so mad that this happened and that he had to leave.’ Everywhere he went, he had a family who loved him and embraced him.”